On tonight’s “Idaho Reports” on Idaho Public Television, co-host Melissa Davlin interviews House Education Chair Julie VanOrden and Senate Education Chair Dean Mortimer; Seth Ogilvie interviews Rep. Sally Toone, D-Gooding, a longtime Idaho teacher; and co-host Aaron Kunz reports on a nuclear cleanup deadline that’s…
After a hearing that stretched for more than an hour and a half this afternoon, the House Resources Committee has voted to send HB 230, the Fish & Game “price lock” fee increase bill and depredation surcharge, to the full House with a recommendation that…
The fight to provide basic health services to Idaho's neediest residents has moved to the Senate, the AP reports. Earlier this week, Rep. Fred Wood pulled back a $10 million plan to provide primary care to...
An Idaho House panel has introduced legislation that would exempt highway districts from clearing snow from sidewalks and streets. Currently, state law requires highway districts to maintain city streets, curbs, gutters and other infrastructure. The law was amended in 2013 to include snow removal, littler control and weed abatement...
It’s time to reform the restrictive liquor license system that’s left some Idaho restaurants on waiting lists for years and driven the price of a liquor license in Coeur d’Alene up to $300,000, Coeur d’Alene Rep. Luke Malek said Friday. Malek introduced legislation to set up a new two-tiered system in which cities or counties could choose to...
A prominent anti-abortion group in Idaho has introduced legislation reversing two abortion laws at the center of a legal battle. Women are currently banned from receiving abortion-inducing medication through telemedicine in Idaho under two laws passed in 2015. The laws required doctors to be present when administering pregnancy-ending pills...
There are lots of people in the Capitol today for the Legislature’s “Idaho Day” celebration, from school groups and choirs to military group sand uniformed Boy Scouts. The House’s ceremony, which ran from 10-11 this morning, included the Boise State Meistersingers performing “Here We Have…
After two hours of testimony both for and against – most of it for – the Senate State Affairs Committee has voted narrowly to kill legislation to raise Idaho’s smoking age from 18 to 21. Advocates of the bill said nearly 95 percent of smokers…
A surprise rule technicality blocked Idaho's House Democrats attempts to add last-minute legislation to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from employment and housing discrimination. House Minority Leader Mat Erpelding said Thursday that his caucus was planning on submitting an amendment...
Funding for a Justice Reinvestment program to provide mental health treatment to newly released criminals was cut in half in the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee this morning, and one JFAC member tried unsuccessfully to eliminate it entirely. “Given our dire need for road funding right now…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
